After a large amount of consideration and discussion with my active senior staff, we've come to the decision that Eaxia is going to need to bear some changes. Some major ones. Scratch that -- LOTS of major changes.

Built partially on the d20 model (used by Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition, Star Wars pen-and-paper RPG, and many other systems), Eaxia suffers from the over-simplicity of this system, among other factors. While I applaud the advantages d20 has brought to D&D and pen-and-paper, it will simply no longer work for Eaxia as it makes our game difficult to write code for and difficult to balance on such a scale where we have players exceeding level 60.

While we will develop and adapt our own core mechanics to the game, I would not expect Eaxia to become more difficult to play and I would not expect it to become overly-realistic either, though certainly we hope to make the game far more fair, challenging, and rewarding. To this end, the following systems will be completely rebuilt:

CombatWhat we have now will practically be thrown away and we will start from scratch with a new and better approach. All aspects of combat will be affected, such as: damage, weapon types, messaging, mechanics, groups, experience, player-versus-player, ranged, unarmed/martial arts, etc. The resulting outcome should feel and play very simular to how the game works now, in general, but it will be much improved.

MagicThis system too will be completely thrown away and rewritten. Every spell will be evaluated and adjusted for balance. The spell casts concept (akin to memorizing spells in D&D) will be removed and replaced with a traditional mana pool. We feel that a spellcaster, in general, should be able to rely solely on his or her spells, with very low costs for the most basic of spells so that a spellcaster is rarely ever without some defense, which is currently not how Eaxia's spellcasters are set up (and therefor there are few successful spellcasters currently). While preparing and casting spells will work roughly the same as they do now, the feel for the entire system should be quite different than it is now and be easier and less frustrating to use.

NPCs/Creature A.I.nMAICS (NPC Artificial Intelligence Control System) that we developed and released at the beginning of this year was but one step in the direction of more advanced NPCs. While this particular Eaxia rebuilding/rewriting may not feature large updates to the nMAIC system, we anticipate that the system will include many upgrades immediately following the rebuild. To better interface with the combat rewrite, NPCs will behave much cleaner and will support area-specific damage and a generally more-intelligent and unique personality from creature to creature. I could spend a whole thread writing about the possibilities and plans for nMAICS that we can finally begin to develop on, but it's not quite time for that yet...

ExperienceOur current experience system features a hybrid of the traditional experience point pool (XP) and individual skills which progress as they are used, also awarding class XP. From level to level, the class XP requirement increases by what it was the previous level plus 1,000 XP, exactly like our d20 model, D&D 3rd edition. While this works for the first 10-15 levels, it is an unwelcome and unbearable punishment to those who labor over their character development. What we will do instead is use essentially the same system, but drastically lower XP requirements, lower XP rewards from skills (but still keep them), and create a system of restrictions on when and how long class XP can be earned for. There's several reasons for adding such a restriction: (a) it helps promote role-playing by slowing character development during off-training times, (b) it helps balance the character development rewards for people who play constantly and people who play on regular occassion, (c) it helps slow character development even after lowering the currently-high XP requirements (to prevent speed-leveling), and several lesser reasons. In general, the experience system won't change much, except for the time restriction.

Weather/EnvironmentWhile I won't discuss the absolute mechanics that will be included in this change, our game environment will be reindexed with the data we need to plot the entire world on a map according to coordinants and elevation for the purpose of sampling generic and specific zone data. Without giving each individual room specific data, we will be able to take a sample of surrounding rooms and evaluate both zone/coordinates and elevation to determine the environment in that area -- what can be foraged, what kind of wildlife is in this area, how high an avian or air vessel can fly, etc. (Which, of course, we could override for special rooms). This adds a nice depth of realism to the game without taking anything away -- not even our room developer's time. With a coordinate system in place, we can also simulate real-life weather affects and can pinpoint movement of celestial bodies including constellation movement, the sun, and the moon with absolute precision -- the sun wouldn't rise and set for everyone at the same time anymore, for example. This also paves the way for our flight and sailing systems, which won't be hosted in traditional rooms but in room-less areas based on coordinants and summary samples of the land around (for sailing) and below (for flying) the travelers. While not all of these possibilities will be explored before we run out of time this year, we look forward to them as early as the first few months of 2004.

Professions/TradesNot a rewrite, but the final requirements our game needs to support professions and trade skills will be finished at roughly the same time. A preliminary list of roles and specific community functions have been produced with support systems which have been under development for several months. Professions will be a level-less system, relying on specific support skills to ensure one's capability to perform in their chosen profession. Skill ranking also helps provide notoriety for an individual, giving them fame and recognition for excelling in a specific trade, earning them higher pay rates, special titles and statuses, and (for some trades) producing better products or services (or faster). This entire system is bursting with role-playing potential and we are so excited that we would like to show you a sneak peak of the preliminary list of professions and roles we will have available. Please note that this list may change before its final form is posted, but it's something to look forward to nonetheless. Link is here: www.eaxia.com/professions.html

Ability Scores/ResistencesWe will be changing how resistences are weighted and re-evaluating what should be important where, particularly when we rebuild combat and magic. As for ability scores, we will be eliminating two scores completely: Constitution and Charisma. Instead, Strength will be divided into both Strength and Stamina (stamina will cover part of Constitution, the rest of Constitution will be governed by influences such as race and class and other factors) and Dexterity will be divided into Agility and Coordination. Charisma served very little function, the most important of which was going to be for cleric, priest, paladin, and necromancer's ability to control, manipulate, or destroy the undead -- which will be handled by a seperate faith/presence system. These changes will be more beneficial to you in helping you fine-tune your character's development while making it easier to understand exactly which ability scores are useful and how. It also rounds out the bases, as a matter of speaking, by making more ability scores useful to more classes which opens us up for more diverse character development opportunities. Be unique!

Wild TalentsSpeaking of being unique, we'll be adding a system of wild talents and flaws for each character. A wild talent is a unique or rare trait that defines a characteristic that you normally wouldn't have. Like being able to carry 25% extra weight, being able to heal slightly faster, or seeing in the dark (when your class usually needs a torch). We'll also have negative traits imposed on characters to balance it out and be fair. Right now, we think we'll allow characters to choose their wild talent and their negative trait from a list ... or ... alternatively, be satisfied with no talent and no negative trait. We don't imagine it will be random. This is still a thought in early conceptual development, so it may take us a month or two (or longer) to completely realize it. All characters will get a chance to take advantage of it though.

FeatsThese will disappear, sort of. We'll still have class-specific abilities, but we won't have trainable feats anymore. Certain classes will have bonuses towards certain skills required to use certain weapons, shields, armors, (or to use two weapons at once) etc., but the idea of trainable feats is something we're going to put to rest as there is simply no good way to balance this area out and they serve little purpose with skill-specific development now.

Expect other, minor changes too.

Now for a bit of disturbing news:

Because of the drastic changes of this rebuild, every character will need to be re-balanced against the new systems. The only way to do this is to have a re-allocation. For those of you unfamiliar with the process or want the specifics of how we will be going about doing this: everyone will have their experience weighted individually and then rerolled back to a commoner (no experience, no feats, no skills, no spells -- nothing except inventory, homes, and other posessions such as C.C.D.s). Then, based on how much experience they had before rerolling, each character will be given an amount of experience in direct proportion, so they can go "level up" many times in a row, giving them each the generally same status they previously held in their class.

Will you be exactly the same level? No, especially since the experience system is being rewritten -- however, it is entirely possible that level 30 Paladin after the rebuild is more powerful than a level 50 Paladin before the rebuild.

Will skills or spells be kept? No, but experience you gained from training skills will be weighted, so it's still important that you continue to train them until the rebuild goes live.

Each person undergoing the reallocation (not new characters, just existing characters) will be given a +1 to their ability score total as a token of gratitude for your patience during this process. We expect to be finished with the changes by the end of October and will release them all at once (we won't release any prematurely). Wild Talents, Weather/Environment, nMAICS Upgrades, and Professions are all upcoming changes that are not a direct part of the rebuild, but were noted here. So don't expect them come the end of October, but do expect them soon (released within the next 3-5 months that follow).

While Systems and Lore is doing this, Areas will continue expanding the world of Eaxia and Presence is re-opening the veins of role-play, including at least two different plots, so keep your eyes peeled as we buckle down and get on track.

Hrms.. very interesting but very promising at the same time. I just have a couple of big questions though, least for me. Will we at Reallocation have the option if we wish to change our characters names like the reallocation for the Haelrahv test system was allowed? And since there are such drastic changes after the mandatory reallocation will you give us a couple of voluntary reallocations so that we don't wind up unhappy with what was previously our main character?

Things are getting exciting! This is a HUGE but necessary step for the realm, only confusion I'm having is as far as the skills not being kept. I suppose if there is a new system to deal with things then it won't really matter what we have now, but if the new system is relative to how we've raised our characters so far, will there be an option to grandfather skills to the point that will be similar to the skill of what we have now? Seemed silly enough the first time having a character that has been using the same blades his entire life of adventuring have 0 ranks in the skill of how to use them, then to raise that to the max of what is allowed...and the drop back to 0 once again just to raise to what we are currently using.

CARIMEI wrote:Hrms.. very interesting but very promising at the same time. I just have a couple of big questions though, least for me. Will we at Reallocation have the option if we wish to change our characters names like the reallocation for the Haelrahv test system was allowed? And since there are such drastic changes after the mandatory reallocation will you give us a couple of voluntary reallocations so that we don't wind up unhappy with what was previously our main character?

Character name changes will generally be allowed, however if some of the changes look unappealing to you and you'd prefer to start your life as another class, you may request your name be changed. Name changes will be approved on a case-by-case basis and while we will probably approve all or close to all of the requests, I'm asking that you not request a name change unless you feel strongly that it's vital to your character's development.

I'm not sure exactly what kind of voluntary reallocation you mean. The experience points are obviously involuntary, but when you go to select a class, race, train your ability score points (from speed-leveling on the weighted XP return), etc., I would imagine that's a voluntary reallocation -- done however you want. Is that what you mean or did I miss the question?

I don't want anyone to be unhappy with the changes, but there will likely be some folks who don't like a change or two -- or possibly many. The changes are being made to greatly enhance and stabalize our game -- to make it a game that's fair and fun. The changes may have a negative effect for some folks, but overall it should be very positive and rewarding. However, if there is a case where a player is simply not satisfied that the changes have harmed him no matter how he re-trains his character, he may always choose another class and race -- there are many lives a character can lead, thankfully.

DYLNPERRY wrote:Exciting stuff upcoming least it is to me and hopefully most others. Loving the wild talent idea. Waiting, waiting, waiting now will be the hard part.

The wild talent concept comes directly from an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition player option, though we'll have our own different wild talents and flaws than what they list. I've always liked the idea as it promotes a wide variety in character uniqueness and doubles as a very powerful role-playing tool, depending on circumstances, for those who participate in it, that is. It will probably be optional, at least for existing characters.

arriend wrote:Things are getting exciting! This is a HUGE but necessary step for the realm, only confusion I'm having is as far as the skills not being kept. I suppose if there is a new system to deal with things then it won't really matter what we have now, but if the new system is relative to how we've raised our characters so far, will there be an option to grandfather skills to the point that will be similar to the skill of what we have now? Seemed silly enough the first time having a character that has been using the same blades his entire life of adventuring have 0 ranks in the skill of how to use them, then to raise that to the max of what is allowed...and the drop back to 0 once again just to raise to what we are currently using.

We will actually have roughly the same list of skills afterwards, but their advancement will work differently -- simular to the changes proposed to our experience system and so won't work the same as they do now, thus another need to wipe and/or reallocate.

The definitive answer you're looking for on skills is a general "no" on grandfathering and "no" on reallocation, which, as harsh as it sounds, actually does make sense as I'll explain in a minute. This doesn't mean that you should all stop training skills now, however, as skill development helps you with using those skills which is particularly useful (especially in combat) and earns you class experience points, which will be weighted and kept (as decribed in the reallocation of my first post).

We won't be grandfathering skills because of how much less they will have to do with your class advancement (though you'll still gain some class XP by practicing skills) but rather your profession advancement. Professions, as you can see by the link posted earlier (reposted: http://www.eaxia.com/professions.html), are dependant upon certain skills. Lesser-paying/rewarding professions are usually plentiful, depend on few and/or easy-to-learn skills, or have simply little demand in the Eaxian social structure and vice versa for the higher-paying, more demanidng professions. By grandfathering skills, we would be grandfathering your profession as well, which we want to avoid. Also, the bonus to combat features for certain skills will be weighed much differently, so that being proficient in wearing or making the best use of a certain armor doesn't add many, many points to your armor rating. There are both technical and role-playing benefits to recognizing this, but I digress.

In short, the skills will be quite a bit more seperated from class development and be prominent for professions, which is why they will not be retroactively awarded based on what they are now (weighted) nor grandfathered.

Exxy, can you explain what will happen to a character? Say Eowyn was 40th when the changes happen...she is a healer, and has all the available spells so far. She has worked her armor and weapons, and is able to fight giants. How will these changes affect her?

All seems very interesting to me...however i'm not sure i really like the idea of possibly losing any levels that i have worked so hard to get. especcially for my wizard. most people don't reallize how hard that is but i'll tell ya it's rough. not that i wanna lose a level or anything for my barb either. cause i have a lot of time invested in both. but i guess we'll see how it goes.
Josh, Bose

Exxy will probably respond to all of this in a few hours, but I was perusing and thought, "Hey, I can probably answer at least some of this stuff until he's around to give a more thorough answer...", so.

Eowyn:
It sounds like you will reallocate and your character's abilities will be restructured in such a way that your exact stats, skills, possibly level, etc. will change, but it should have no great impact on your character other than numbers. The relative power of your character should be comparable to what it is now. Spells are being changed completely, so those will certainly be different, and I'll defer fine details to Exxy, but generally speaking, you should be at about the same relative level with spell power too and in fact, probably better off than you are now in this aspect.

Josh:
Levels are just a number, and as you know, level 50 in one game may be HUGE while level 100 in another may be a relatively small thing. If the "value" of a level changes so that every level is "worth" more, then you're not losing anything if you lose some levels. Your relative strength is the same, just the number changed. This is a popular thing to do in a restructuring of a game, to scale down numbers so they are more manageable, without adversely affecting the players by making the actual levels worth more.

You'll probably see a significant boon for your previously mentioned wizard, because the changes to how spells are used will mean you can reliably hunt directly off of your spell arsenal instead of having to use a weapon as much as you probably do now.

Anyway, the basic point is, you will probably not "lose" anything. Your level might decrease, but your ability and power will not, it's just a numbers game. This is the sort of change commonly employed to keep games from running into really high level ranges, for instance, keeping players in the level 1 to 100 range instead of 1 to 200 range. By making levels twice as valuable, you can safely cut the max level possible in half without hurting anyone.

Alright ive read and reread this stuff like three times now. And i am pretty sure i get everything and it all sounds good cept for one thing. The lose of levels ive earned my levels i have now I feel I should still be the same level after the change as should everyone else. I really dont wana work my way from 40th to 64th again doesnt really seem fair. I know ill be stronger than i am now with the change but ive earned 64 levels on my own and i dont think at all for any reason i should lose anything i have earned cause of a change. It makes the whole thing seems like a reset to me and not a change for the better when i think about the lose of levels.

Look I earned 64 levels and i should be able to keep everyone of them even after the change everyoen should keep their level the skills can work out to be whatever but I earned 64 levels and i dont wana be hunting jungatha again for another 20 to be back to 64th. Sure we are gaining new stuff I guess but i am losen what i earned its simple i am 64th i should be 64th when it changes and if your 30th you should be 30th when it changes all i see comen from this is a reset maken people smaller and some new combat changes which mean ill haft to do everything i just done over the past year over again and well that just sucks.

Think about everything your level entails: Your skills, stats, hit points, resistances, what you can hunt safely etc. Those things should be relatively the same. What would change would simply be one number, your level.

Unless those jungatha are made more powerful than they are now, there'd be no reason for you to hunt them again. Their level would likely decrease too but their power -- which is below your power -- would stay the same.

The only thing. ONLY thing, that would possibly dramatically change as I understand it, would be the actual number of your level. Your relative power and what kinds of things you can safely hunt would not change. Of course any of this is subject to change as needed but this is how it seems to be at the moment.

Now, if you understand that you will be able to hunt the same things, be just as strong, etc etc. and what's really bothering you is the fact that the number that represents your level may be reduced, then I suppose I can see how that might bother you, it may feel like you're backpedalling. But you're not. You didn't actually lose anything.

It would be like if you wanted to buy a car that cost $30,000 and you had that much money, then someone said okay, money is worth twice as much now, so we're taking away half of your money. Now you have $15,000 instead. But you can still buy the car you wanted because your money is twice as valuable. You didn't lose anything, the numbers were just scaled down so that they are more manageable.

I understand ill be just as strong and all that but ive worked damned hard for like the past year to be 64th. I havent worked to be reset to a smaller level and be just as strong. Which if thats true then Ima be one weak thief. If it wasnt for backstab I wouldnt have anyway to protect myself as is. Not matter what you say Ima still say my level 64th should still be 64th after the change. I really dont see the point to work twards 64th again after i already earned it one time.

It sounds to me like the changes are going to be mainly positive, if we're looking at a more or less complete rewrite I would like to make a request that might eliminate some of the problems we've had in the past in the area of PvP. I'd like to see a challenge system for those who wish to spar and to protect others from being killed while in their head or a higher level from killing a lower level character that is being a pain to them. The only place for PvP in my opinion is an arena between consenting players. I don't want for someone to just be able to walk up and kill someone just because they dislike them etc. I also find it disruptive when older players spar in public places when I'm trying to work skills, heal etc.
Histah, Guardian Ranger

Seems all that's to be lost is the skills that we've worked for and the bragging rights that go along with your level. I see where you're comming from with the level loss hitting a bit hard when you've raised so many already...believe me, I know. But it's not that big of a loss for what we gain. Things will be kept proportional and, sure, the number may be smaller, but when you reach it again, it'll be all the more impressive...

I'm not sure exactly what kind of voluntary reallocation you mean. The experience points are obviously involuntary, but when you go to select a class, race, train your ability score points (from speed-leveling on the weighted XP return), etc., I would imagine that's a voluntary reallocation -- done however you want. Is that what you mean or did I miss the question?

Mainly what I meant was by voluntary reallocation.. Well let me explain. When the changes go into effect, everyone will start over fresh. Now everyone rushes to get all their training done again, but someone is not happy with how they wound up after training. They would have the ability to start fresh again, to reallocation again, one or two times. Not everyone would have to do this, so it's not mandatory like the first one, but rather a concious choice to reallocate.

Histah wrote:It sounds to me like the changes are going to be mainly positive, if we're looking at a more or less complete rewrite I would like to make a request that might eliminate some of the problems we've had in the past in the area of PvP. I'd like to see a challenge system for those who wish to spar and to protect others from being killed while in their head or a higher level from killing a lower level character that is being a pain to them. The only place for PvP in my opinion is an arena between consenting players. I don't want for someone to just be able to walk up and kill someone just because they dislike them etc. I also find it disruptive when older players spar in public places when I'm trying to work skills, heal etc.Histah, Guardian Ranger

I dont think there should really be a "challege" system in any way, the policy outlines what is consent to PvP and what isnt consent in regards to PvP. Right now you cant walk up to someone and kill them just because you dislike them, thats breaking policy and that gets taken care of by a GM at the time it happens. It seems like extra work that isnt necessary. Once the policy was re-written in regards to PvP it was clear what gave consent and what didnt. As far as older players sparring in public places, I think you should be able to spar anywhere you are allowed, a few weeks ago STS was a peaceful place and you couldnt spar there, however if it bothers someone there are always other rooms they can go to. Heal isnt a live skill yet, so the only skills you could be working while not in combat is probably found to be disruptive to the characters sparring as well i.e. scroll on the screen, etc. Basically I just think the time could be spent on making new spells, or the justice system, or the new treasure system, rather than wasting time making something that isnt really needed anyway.

Eowyn Faleen wrote:Exxy, can you explain what will happen to a character? Say Eowyn was 40th when the changes happen...she is a healer, and has all the available spells so far. She has worked her armor and weapons, and is able to fight giants. How will these changes affect her?

This is actually quite a few questions rolled into one.

Will characters lose spells they have learned from their guildleader by acquiring a certain level?Levels will have new meaning after the rebuild, so we will be re-evaluating when guild-given spells will be distributed. While I can't guarantee that you will keep every spell (and in fact, some spells may no longer exist or be changed dramatically), you should be able to re-acquire the majority of guild-given spells if you choose to use your reallocation points on the same class.

Will characters lose spells they have learned from spell scrolls?Yes. There's no alternative for this since it's possible that some people will want to be a different class during the reallocation process and therefor can't keep the spells. Also, some spells will be changed, renamed, etc. and may not be appropriate for that class or power of that character.

My character is able to hunt XXXXX right now based on my level, class, skills, and equipment. Will I still be able to hunt these types of creatures after the reallocation or will I have to hunt something easier?In general, the average power of a player before and after the reallocation will be roughly the same. We are aiming to make sure that while your actual level may be less and character abilities slightly altered, in general most characters will have the same average power that they have now. Some will have more power, actually (especially Wizards and some of the other classes that are currently extremely weak). NPCs/creatures will also be re-evaluated completely to accomodate the level changing. So, in short, you should roughly be hunting the same after the reallocation as what you're hunting now, should you choose the same class and spend your ability score points from leveling in roughly the same way. There will be variances for everyone, but it won't be real severe.

ellisj wrote:All seems very interesting to me...however i'm not sure i really like the idea of possibly losing any levels that i have worked so hard to get. especcially for my wizard. most people don't reallize how hard that is but i'll tell ya it's rough. not that i wanna lose a level or anything for my barb either. cause i have a lot of time invested in both. but i guess we'll see how it goes.

Allocation points will be awarded based on current experience, level, and class for each character. Some classes are much more difficult to level in and will be fixed to be more powerful after the rebuild (which is one of the biggest reasons for the rebuild -- balance). Wizards will experience a bonus to allocation points and so they will definitely be slightly more powerful than they were previously and since the guild will be balanced far better, it will become much easier to advance in that class afterwards.

In otherwords, we're valuing Wizard levels more than most other classes because it is far more difficult to advance and if it hadn't been, you would be slightly higher level than you are now -- so you will be awarded for hard work and won't get shafted by a reallocation.

GDPALLIDAR wrote:Eowyn:It sounds like you will reallocate and your character's abilities will be restructured in such a way that your exact stats, skills, possibly level, etc. will change, but it should have no great impact on your character other than numbers. The relative power of your character should be comparable to what it is now. Spells are being changed completely, so those will certainly be different, and I'll defer fine details to Exxy, but generally speaking, you should be at about the same relative level with spell power too and in fact, probably better off than you are now in this aspect.

The idea that your character will be about as powerful afterwards as before is true, in fact some characters may be a little more powerful. Your abilities and spells may be somewhat different, so see my specific response to your questions in a previous post.

GDPALLIDAR wrote:Josh:Levels are just a number, and as you know, level 50 in one game may be HUGE while level 100 in another may be a relatively small thing. If the "value" of a level changes so that every level is "worth" more, then you're not losing anything if you lose some levels. Your relative strength is the same, just the number changed. This is a popular thing to do in a restructuring of a game, to scale down numbers so they are more manageable, without adversely affecting the players by making the actual levels worth more.

I've responded to this one specificly as well, so I'll skip it here.

GDPALLIDAR wrote:Anyway, the basic point is, you will probably not "lose" anything. Your level might decrease, but your ability and power will not, it's just a numbers game. This is the sort of change commonly employed to keep games from running into really high level ranges, for instance, keeping players in the level 1 to 100 range instead of 1 to 200 range. By making levels twice as valuable, you can safely cut the max level possible in half without hurting anyone. :)

This is actually just a small reason we're doing this rebuild. Refering back to my original thread-starting post, we really want to balance out the differences in classes and we need a more adaptive system for combat that works beyond the range of 15-20 levels. d20 just won't cut it for us anymore.

Goharo wrote:Alright ive read and reread this stuff like three times now. And i am pretty sure i get everything and it all sounds good cept for one thing. The lose of levels ive earned my levels i have now I feel I should still be the same level after the change as should everyone else. I really dont wana work my way from 40th to 64th again doesnt really seem fair. I know ill be stronger than i am now with the change but ive earned 64 levels on my own and i dont think at all for any reason i should lose anything i have earned cause of a change. It makes the whole thing seems like a reset to me and not a change for the better when i think about the lose of levels.

The hangup seems to be that you fear you may have to "work up" your character back to a reasonable status or past certain creatures again (which everyone had to do with the Combat 2.0 release). Let me assure you that you'll still be as powerful, if not more so (Thieves kinda get screwed over in combat power, except for Backstab, which is too powerful) and that you won't have to revert back to weaker creatures/NPCs again. Also, your relative power within your class will still tbe the same. Are you the highest Thief now? You will be after the reallocation too, giving you the same respect and infamy as before.

MARPO wrote:If you stay the same in strength and skills, why should the number of the level matter? From how I understood it, basically you will be the same, but instead of being 60th level you will be a little lower, but have roughly the exact same skills etc.

Does the actual number title being used matter that much? And if everyone is treated the same, how does it really affect anything? You would still be higher than someone that was lower than you.

Perhaps you are correct in that you are losing something other than the numerical number title of the level...I may be misunderstanding it.

Goharo wrote:Look I earned 64 levels and i should be able to keep everyone of them even after the change everyoen should keep their level the skills can work out to be whatever but I earned 64 levels and i dont wana be hunting jungatha again for another 20 to be back to 64th. Sure we are gaining new stuff I guess but i am losen what i earned its simple i am 64th i should be 64th when it changes and if your 30th you should be 30th when it changes all i see comen from this is a reset maken people smaller and some new combat changes which mean ill haft to do everything i just done over the past year over again and well that just sucks.

I don't want to see any bickering back and forth about supporting for or against the system. This thread isn't for arguing with each other (though you're plenty welcome to argue with me about it).

I've answered the concerns of the post in another response, so I'll skip the details, but no one is being pushed back to doing anything they did a year ago (old creatures, old methods, etc.).

Goharo wrote:I understand ill be just as strong and all that but ive worked damned hard for like the past year to be 64th. I havent worked to be reset to a smaller level and be just as strong. Which if thats true then Ima be one weak thief. If it wasnt for backstab I wouldnt have anyway to protect myself as is. Not matter what you say Ima still say my level 64th should still be 64th after the change. I really dont see the point to work twards 64th again after i already earned it one time.

Goharo wrote:and if i stay the same power and all and jungatha still dont really teach cept for grey ones then its gonna take me even longer to get back what i already had just seems like a lose lose things to me

The concept of being "64th level" is an out-of-character one. From an in-character, role-playing perspective, your character is still the same power, of the same status in the guild, and has the same abilities -- as far as your character's concerned, not much will change. And while I'm not guaranteeing that your level will drastically change, I doubt it will change much. Maybe you'll be 65th after the reallocation. Maybe 60th. The reallocation is to help readjust power and balance out the guilds as well as preparing for new health and combat systems (not to mention new ability scores/stats, which affect everything else as you level up too), and not so much to make the numbers more managable, as may have been suggested earlier. Don't expect to lose much in the way of level, but should you lose a few levels or so, don't be disheartened because the level itself is not a title you should be proud of, but the power and abilities of your character is.

Histah wrote:It sounds to me like the changes are going to be mainly positive, if we're looking at a more or less complete rewrite I would like to make a request that might eliminate some of the problems we've had in the past in the area of PvP. I'd like to see a challenge system for those who wish to spar and to protect others from being killed while in their head or a higher level from killing a lower level character that is being a pain to them. The only place for PvP in my opinion is an arena between consenting players. I don't want for someone to just be able to walk up and kill someone just because they dislike them etc. I also find it disruptive when older players spar in public places when I'm trying to work skills, heal etc.

ALLRIGHT wrote:I dont think there should really be a "challege" system in any way, the policy outlines what is consent to PvP and what isnt consent in regards to PvP. Right now you cant walk up to someone and kill them just because you dislike them, thats breaking policy and that gets taken care of by a GM at the time it happens. It seems like extra work that isnt necessary. Once the policy was re-written in regards to PvP it was clear what gave consent and what didnt. As far as older players sparring in public places, I think you should be able to spar anywhere you are allowed, a few weeks ago STS was a peaceful place and you couldnt spar there, however if it bothers someone there are always other rooms they can go to. Heal isnt a live skill yet, so the only skills you could be working while not in combat is probably found to be disruptive to the characters sparring as well i.e. scroll on the screen, etc. Basically I just think the time could be spent on making new spells, or the justice system, or the new treasure system, rather than wasting time making something that isnt really needed anyway.

On the subject of a challenge system vs. the need to avoid random killings: ALLRIGHT is correct. Since the updates to our player-versus-player sections of policy, the rules are now very specific on what constitutes a violation of that policy and what does not. When it is and isn't okay to player-kill, etc.

While I don't support the same rationale and opinions about disruptive activities, we do have rules in our policy for being disruptive, including scrolling and general disruptive behavior. Rules against it means protection for those who aren't interested in being bothered by it. Protection for folks like you, HISTAH, which is guaranteed by policy and strictly enforced.

So while we may develop a challenge-type in the future, we definitely have systems in place (policy) at the moment to handle the problems you mention.

I'm not sure exactly what kind of voluntary reallocation you mean. The experience points are obviously involuntary, but when you go to select a class, race, train your ability score points (from speed-leveling on the weighted XP return), etc., I would imagine that's a voluntary reallocation -- done however you want. Is that what you mean or did I miss the question?

Mainly what I meant was by voluntary reallocation.. Well let me explain. When the changes go into effect, everyone will start over fresh. Now everyone rushes to get all their training done again, but someone is not happy with how they wound up after training. They would have the ability to start fresh again, to reallocation again, one or two times. Not everyone would have to do this, so it's not mandatory like the first one, but rather a concious choice to reallocate.

I see. So if you reallocated once and wound up not liking your character after the reallocation, you wish to be allowed to do it again to try it out another way?

I hadn't considered allowing something like this and my first reaction and instinct is that I fear this would be an easy target for those wishing to abuse the opportunity, but there may be ways we can avoid that, so we'll have to see how much interest there is for it.

I think that might be called <reroll my character>? and is already possible :shrugs:

Again, I don't want to see stuff like this. There's no reason to act like this on the forums. If you have something negative to say, try to at least be constructive. By "start fresh again", she means she would like to reallocate from a fresh start again if the first reallocate turns out to produce a character she is not happy with. It's a reasonable idea to consider and I've responded in the post previous to this.